One of the most challenging projects of the day was the walnut edging on the raised laminate flooring edge. Dan had fabricated the trim and finished it in his shop, but it had to be ripped to an exact width that could only be determined once the ceramic tile floor was laid. Normally this would not be a big deal, but right in the middle of ripping the trim on the 1959 vintage Sears table saw the motor overload kicked out. This saw, a gift from Sandy's dad who purchased it new, has its original 1/2 HP motor that weighs as much as the saw, but weight did not prevent it from failing after all these years. So Dan was forced to use a circular saw to rip the trim to width. But once trimmed to width it went into place without a hitch. Tomorrow we will use clear silicone caulk to seal the joint between the trim and floor.

The project, being nearly complete, we decided to take a couple hours off the project and visit Philipsburg. On our way down the mountain we stopped for a few pictures of the aspens, which were loosing leaves very quickly now.

Sandy has been downtown once but did not take the time to look the town over. This late 1880's mining town that has many historic buildings and most have been restored and are in use with interesting shops.

We had not taken time for lunch so our first stop was Doe Brothers Soda Fountain. We had a nice late afternoon lunch, or as it turned out, early dinner. Half of this structure was a pharmacy back in the 1800's and the other half was a cafe. It is now all one business. One of the workers told us that in its orginal form the second floor was a rooming house and is now converted to apartments. The food was great as well as the decor.

We finished our meal with an ice cream cone and a walk around the downtown area. The weather was in the 60's and full sun, what a beautiful day! We did stop in several shops, The one pictured below is Schnibbles was originally Morse Hall constructed in 1887 by Colonel J. W. Morse as a Lecture Hall. According to the National Register of Historic Places plaque it also served as a county courthouse, an opera house, town hall, library and general community center.

We finished our tour of town by driving some of the residential streets, many of which rise a hundred feet or more from the downtown section. On one street we had a clear view of Discovery Mountain Ski area. This is actually the back side of the mountain and the ski runs are the more advanced runs. We returned to Gary's cabin after our afternoon off and finished a coule more little projects that were on our list.

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